‘Hauora’ is a kupu Māori often used to denote ‘health’. But it is more accurately a philosophy or worldview rather than a state or condition.
Deriving from ‘hau’ (reciprocity) and ‘ora’ (life), hauora can be thought of as harmony of the dynamic reciprocal relationships necessary for life. Creating and maintaining hauora therefore entails keeping the dimensions of hau – such as mana (agency or self-determination), mauri (life force), and wairua (the spirit or intangible) – in balance.
There are many Māori models bringing the concept of hauora to life, the most famous being Tā Mason Durie’s Te Whare Tapa Whā, which compares hauora to the four walls of a house, each describing a different dimension of health necessary to keep the house stable: not only the body (tinana) and mind (hinengaro), but also wairua (the spirit) and whānau (the wider family). All the dimensions also have a connection with and are sustained by the whenua or land they stand upon.
Our mental health sits within this interconnected and interdependent web of relationships. It converses with other aspects of our wellbeing, and indeed our wider environment (including physical, social and cultural environments). From this perspective, we might think of mental distress as a manifestation of disharmony between these dimensions, rather than an isolated and innate experience. To address difficulties we’re experiencing with our mental health, we can draw on strengths from other aspects of our hauora like our social connections or spirituality.
While hauora is a uniquely Māori concept, its holistic character is consistent with global trends in health promotion thinking, which increasingly favour moving away from individual disease approaches toward a social model of health. The ways we understand, communicate, and look after our health (including our mental health) are shaped by our sociocultural context and the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age – and these conditions are often determined by political decisions. This is not to say we have no agency over our own health, but encourages us to acknowledge the influence of factors outside our control, which unjustly affect some groups more than others.
Holistic models also challenge our political leaders to recognise how non-medical factors like poverty, racism, colonisation, poor housing and violence influence our mental health and overall wellbeing. Seemingly irrelevant policies – such as those related to the environment, cultural identity, decision-making, equitable participation in education, society and the economy, and the exercise of tino rangatiratanga – actually serve a mental health promotion function. Some of the most powerful things we can do to protect and enhance Aotearoa’s mental wellbeing lie beyond the mental health and addiction system. But we need to think holistically – and work together – to make them possible.
About Siobhan
Siobhan has whakapapa to Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Ireland and England and was born and raised in Waitākere. She has a Master of Public Policy specialising in public health, reproductive health and Māori health, and five years’ experience as a gambling harm public health worker. She has worked for the Mental Health Foundation since 2022.
Resource Details
Prentice, K. (2022, July 27-28). Turning the Spotlight on the Hau in Hauora [presentation]. Transforming Mental Health Conference, Auckland, New Zealand. https://youtu.be/CzN6LVjKobI?si=bkH0xLKAH_4-ZJuK.
Durie, M. (1998). Whaiora: Māori Health Development (Second Edition). Auckland: Oxford University Press.
Durie, M. (2005). Indigenous Health Promotion. In Herrman, H., Moodie, R., & Saxena, S. (Eds.), Promoting Mental Health: Concepts, Emerging Evidence, Practice (pp. 265-267). World Health Organization Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, and the University of Melbourne. https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/43286/9241562943_eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Yuill, C., Crinson, I., & Duncan, E. (2010). The social model of health. In Key Concepts in Health Studies (pp. 11-14). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446251676.